Introduction: Flagship reels
seem to get all the spotlight. Anglers pine for their sexy profiles and drool
over their top-end specifications, which drives us to save up our hard earned
dollars for the opportunity to own these fishable collectibles. Yet it is the
humble value reel that continues to sell the highest volumes, and delivers the
most bang for the buck while catering to the largest audiences. To address this
large market 13 Fishing has expanded their reel offerings with the new value
oriented ONE3 Origin Series reels, only these baitcasters are designed to offer
more style, features, and performance than what anglers have grown to expect
from sub 100 dollar reels.

Impressions: 13 Fishing
continues to pave their own path when it comes to rods, reels, and most recently
lures as well. This fast growing company has created a strong identifiable
brand, and in record time too.

Both ONE3 reels feature the same
compact profile

Known for taking chances and keeping things fun
the team at 13 Fishing wanted to introduce a new line of value low-profile reels
that didn’t require anglers to make all the sacrifices they usually need to make
at the sub 100 dollar price point, which usually includes having to fish bland
baitcasters.

Their answer
are the ONE3 Series baitcasters which initially launches with two reels, the
black Origin-A and white Origin-C.

The Origin-C features a mean
looking matte white finish

What primarily sets these two reels apart are composite versus aluminum frames,
higher-end bearings and drag components, and a twenty dollar price difference.
Both reels feature the exact same compact profile and they are basically the
inverse of each other when it comes to finishes. The Origin-A features a slick
black exterior paint finish with white knobs while the Origin-C has a matte
white exterior with black knobs.

These reels are modern looking
with blacked out components

At the recent ICAST 2017 show the company rolled out a third variation, a
seafoam green reel called the Origin TX, and as you probably already guessed is
designed for inshore and saltwater use. The Origin TX is somewhat of an
amalgamation of the two reels as it has a corrosion proof frame and 6+1
corrosion resistant high-end bearings.

The reel sits low on just about
all reel seats

At first glance, and even when cranking on the reels for the first time, they
look and feel like a quality product that could quite easily retail for over a
hundred dollars. But initial impressions can often be deceiving, and I was eager
to see if these value oriented reels fished like other sub 100 dollar reels or
did 13 Fishing really deliver some extra value and fun-factor with these
affordable entries?

Time to see how the ONE3 Origin
reels measure up and compare to each other

Real World Tests: To test both the ONE3 Origin-A and Origin-C baitcasters
we fished the reels for a period of three months. We spooled both reels with
Sunline Super Natural monofilament and Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon and
paired them with a variety of rods including offerings from 13 Fishing’s own
Omen Series as well as other branded rods to see how well they balanced out with
a wide range of sticks. We targeted both spotted and largemouth bass in a
variety of Northern California lakes and the California Delta fishing everything
from lightweight plastics to big baits.

Both reels proved to be good
casters but the Origin-C handles the light stuff a little better